my story

[lindaoo]

this is my first post regarding my hair loss situation, which puts everything into realization for me.
I am 30 years old and my entire life, I have complained of how thick and how much hair I had because it was just so hard to manage.
Now I am kicking myself in the head because I have about 1/2 the hair I had just even compared to last August.
I moved out of my parents home, got married, unemployed, and was struck with terrible seasonal allergies for the first time in my life.
I couldn't tolerate being outside for more than 5 minutes!!!
So I went to my Primary Care doc. and he gave me prednisone, Zpak, and Singular to see if the allergies and sinus infection would get any better...
This was August 2010, this is when I started to really notice my hair getting really really thin!
I spoke to him about it and he said it was probably stress, since I am a highly stressed out gal! He tested me for lupus, iron, and vit. D, but all came back ok.
I continued with my regular day to day life, but still was noticing my hair getting thinner and thinner, especially at the sides/temples (above the ears), and at the top of my head.
I had my doctor also test my hormones, and they call came back in the normal range!
She referred me to a dermatologist and when I finally was able to see him he didn't even do any lab work, just barely looked at my hair and said its diffuse alopecia areata??? and gave me a steroid lotion to put on daily for 6 weeks...

I am now waiting to see Dr. Maria Colavincenzo, and currently am seeing baby hairs growing on the top/front of my head!!!
Does anyone know what this could be?
Any thoughts and input would be very helpful.
Also if anyone knows of a good endocrinologist in the Chicago area, as well as a good dermatologist who has a special interest in hair loss would be helpful!!!!
Thank you for reading my story...

[sarann]

Hi,

I also live in Chicago and have almost the same exact problem, I was tested for everything under the sun and the only thing my Dr. could find was a slight problem with an under-active thyroid. Heres the weird thing, she has noticed in an uptick in women patients with the same problem and didn't have any answers for it, not too soon after that I was having lunch with a friend and she was complaining about the same problem, I went to the nail salon the next day and noticed the girl who does my nails had thinning hair in the front and she always had very thick hair. The only correlation I could make at the time was the fact that everyone drank alot of city water. So I began my researching obsession and started to research anything that had to do with the "water and the city of chicago", well I discovered one thing.. the city of Chicago of has very high Fluoride levels in the water and there was a debate about a year ago on wether or not to lower them. This led me to researching (journal articles) Fluoride and its effect on the hair..... BINGO!
"2010 study by Zheng-hui Wang and colleagues from the Second Hospital in China shows there may be a correlation between hair follicle damage and fluoride. The exact way the excess fluoride effects the hair follicle is unclear, but damage will result in hair loss. According to Medical News Today, some scientists and interest groups have shown concern about the continued application of fluoride to the water systems, deeming the application unnecessary and less useful than previously thought.
Fluoride toxicity produces hair loss by affecting the thyroid. Fluoride slows down the thyroid function which leads to Hypothyroidism – Underactive Thyroid."
We are the only backassward country in the world that still puts fluoride in the water and most major cities are over fluorinated. Anyhow I gave up all city water and completely changed my diet around and it worked. To boost my hair growth I took hair vitamins, started using a thickening shampoo and conditioner, and applied this concoction that I discovered while researching the Us patent office database for pending "hair growth" patents which is comprised of coconut oil, eclipta alba, hibiscus sinensis, and nardostachys jatamansi, all ayurvedic powders.

[Lyric]

Saraann, you're post is fascinating. What do you do to avoid the fluoride then ? We have a shower filter and a water filter pitcher.
Do you mind sharing the measurements for the ayurvedic ingredients that you use, application methods, how often etc ?
Thanks.

[sarann]

Hi,

here is the link for the journal article on the ayruvedic hair treatment, I followed their exact method - http://sphinxsai.com/PTVOL4/pdf_vol4/PT=46%20(1251-1254).pdf

also only a "reverse osmosis water system" will eliminate fluoride they are kind of pricey, but spending endless amounts of money on dr. bills and hair care crap is even more money.

additionally here is a really interesting site with tons of info on fluoride,(http://www.fluoridealert.org) I have a feeling with all of the new research being published about fluoride and hair loss that it will begin a larger debate about stopping water fluoridation, as long as it is in your toothpaste your teeth wont fall out of your head. After reading a number of journal articles it really makes no sense why we are ingesting it.... and again my hair loss "started" when I moved to the city of chicago and it has since stopped when I stopped drinking city water and we installed the water system under the sink......

[Lyric]

The place where we buy our shower filter has that system. Can't remember how much it was. Thanks for all this info.

What do you use to mark the levels in the pot that you heat up all the ingredients in ? What do you store it in ? How long is it stable for and do you have to store it in a specific way ie fridge or dark cupboard ?

[Lyric]

lindaoo, thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear that you have hair growing back.

[sarann]

I bought a chemistry beaker from amazon - as i didn't want to take the risk with some weird oxidative thing happening with my metal pot and have that end up in the oil and make my hair fall out (lol!) and they are pyrex so you can heat them. I store it in a pyrex bowl and keep it in the cupboard - i have made a new batch every week just to be safe. - it kinda stinks but it has definitely helped my hair grow and thicken - i hope this helps.

[sarann]

One last interesting note - 3 weeks ago the CDC lowered the recommended fluoride levels to 0.7 milligrams per liter; the city of Chicago's fluoride levels are at 2.0 milligrams per liter! anyone in chicago area reading this should try to eliminate drinking the citys water and document what happens to your hair. ..

[lindaoo]

Sarann
I have a question for you that I was wondering about...
I looked at the article for the Ayurvedic herb formula but I was sort of thrown off with the values. I'm assuming you followed teh DF3 since they said that worked best, but how do you figure out the amount to use.
For example it says Eclipta alba 10%, is that 10% of 100ml.
I'm not sure???
Can you help? thanks again for your research and your feedback...
I too have noticed lots of my friends have thinning hair as well, and all just recently!!!

Thank you!